Annual report on NHS complaints
2023 to 2024

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides information on the total number of complaints received by NHSScotland organisations from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.  

Main points

• The total number of complaints received by NHSScotland decreased by 7% from 35,720 in 2022/23, to 33,273 complaints in 2023/24.
• NHS Territorial and Special Boards complaints increased by 1% from 23,537 in 2022/23 to 23,876 in 2023/24.
• NHS Contractor complaints decreased by 23% to 9,397 (previously 12,183). Of this total, Independent GP Practice contractor complaints decreased by 3% to 6,949 (previously 7,137) and Independent Pharmacy contractors decreased by 64% to 1,406 (previously 3,883).
• The total number of complaints that were closed in 2023/24 by NHS boards showed a slight decrease of 1% (from 21,768 to 21,599). This does not include contractor data, withdrawn cases or cases where consent was not received.
• Stage one (early resolution) complaints closed (11,457) accounted for 53% of all complaints closed. An increase of 2 percentage points on the previous year.
• Stage two (investigation) complaints closed (7,858) accounted for 36% of overall complaints closed, the same as in the previous year.
• 2,284 stage two escalated complaints closed (those unable to be resolved at stage one) accounted for 11% of overall complaints, a decrease of 2 percentage points on the previous year.
• The percentage of complaints upheld at stage one (37%) increased by 4 percentage points. The percentage of complaints upheld at stage two (25%) decreased by 1 percentage point. The percentage of stage two escalated complaints upheld (30%) has decreased by 3 percentage points since 2022/23.
• Within their agreed timescales, 75% of stage one complaints were closed on time within five working days (an increase of 5 percentage points), 47% of stage two complaints were closed on time within 20 working days (an increase of 1 percentage point) and 42% of stage two escalated complaints were closed on time within 20 working days (an increase of 6 percentage points).

Background

This report provides information on NHSScotland complaints received about hospital and community health services, family health services, special boards and national and support organisations. 

It includes the number of complaints received; the time taken to deal with complaints and the outcome of complaints. The individual NHS Board's Complaints and Feedback reports include; issues raised; actions taken; service areas and staff groups who were the subject of complaints, though this varies between the NHS Boards. 

Our complaints process provides two opportunities to resolve (close) complaints internally: Early resolution, and Investigation. More details are found in The NHS Model Complaints Handling Procedure.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be January 2026.